What we've been up to

What we have been up to this past week, in pictures:

Doing crafts in the boys' new smocks from Nai Nai.

Reading books we got from the library (yes, we did find another little library with some English books in our area). Austin is really into reading them.

Watching the Heels win! We even allowed breakfast on the couch just this once. Austin especially got pretty into the game for the first time. He would actually pay attention when the ball went in the hoop and get excited.

Celebrating Carolina's win and Duke's loss to Arizona (we have an Arizona hat for Austin b/c of the "A")...equally important to some in this house. (and also VCU's win...what a great game. I watched it mostly by myself b/c Chris had a meeting at the time. He was proud of me.)

I hosted a birthday party for my friend Emily tonight...her new little one, Aubrey, joined us but slept the whole time. Oh, to sleep like a one month old.

What we have also been up to is potty training Bennett. It has been pretty easy actually- so much different than when I potty trained Austin. With Austin I never left his side for a week and concentrated so much time explaining, training, watching potty videos and books. I feel like I have barely done anything for Bennett but he gets it. I think being the second (of the same gender especially) helps a lot- he has been watching Austin use the potty for a long time. He started telling me when he had to poop, so we tried that a couple times. Then we tried wearing underwear. The first day (this is after a very failed attempt in early December. He obviously was not ready then and is now) he peed whenever I put him on the potty (about every hour or two) and stayed dry all morning. What?! Of course he is still in a diaper for sleeping. He has had a few accidents and won't successfully go the bathroom outside of our little potty at home. Still, he mostly stays dry and usually goes whenever I make him try. The first time he had an accident, he screamed and said "Mommy, what's in there?" pointing to his wet pants. He does not like wet pants, which maybe is motivating. Anyway, much easier the second time around so far.

Salt and paranoia

This is my bag of "iodiled" salt in my kitchen.

I have been glued to the news lately, feeling sorrow for the complicated tragedy in Japan. While I have had moments even of uncertainty myself- could this nuclear tragedy affect us- I am pretty reassured by news and WHO reports that at this point I have absolutely nothing to worry about. We are far, the wind is blowing out to sea and it certainly has not escalated to a major meltdown yet (and even if it does, still very unlikely it would affect us). However, try telling that to the other billion people in this country.

I discovered yesterday while talking to Xiao Chen that there has been a MAJOR run on salt- all over the country. Apparently, rumors have been flying over text messages, QQ (a major online chat forum) and who knows where else that everyone needs salt. There are two reasons given (though maybe not everyone knows both of them)- one is people believe that since salt has iodine, it can help prevent radiation sickness ( though you would need to ingest 250 teaspoons of salt to get enough iodine in one tablet, a possibly lethal does of salt). Also, people seem to think that most salt here comes from the sea (which is not true, most of it is mined) and that even the sea on the coast in China might be contaminated so they need to stock up (it is not).

Xiao Chen herself was not very clear on why people needed salt (she thought it came from the sea) or whether this was a rumor or had any truth to it. Since then I went online and read some about it and have compared notes with friends across the country. There is no salt to be found in stores. People have been a bit crazy to find salt and many grocery stores have stepped up security to prevent chaos. Wow. I am sure America might be crazy too about something like this if it actually showed up on its doorstep. However, I am glad for access to correct information. It is just an interesting study in how people respond to tragedy and fear. I am glad too that I know the One who holds it all in His Hands.

And I am also glad I still have about 3/4 of a bag of salt in my cabinet. For cooking purposes. Who knows when there will be any to be found.

Outdoor fun

Despite missing Chris, I did have a really nice birthday. Chris had flowers delivered to me (didn't know you could do that here), Austin and Bennett drew me some really nice pictures, Austin "made" me birthday soup and cake, and some good friends took me out for pedicure and dinner, cake and celebration. I will hopefully have pictures from a friend soon to post from the night.

The weather has started to get really nice. We have had really blue skies and warm-ish (like in the 50's) temperatures the past few days. Tomorrow is forecast to be 69 degrees! though I don't know if I believe it (and then snow forecast for Monday, but surely it can't be 70 one day and snow the next). We have had a lot more outside time lately and visited two of our favorite parks in the area this week. Enjoy!

Austin's favorite thing to do now at the park across the street is the trampoline. He is getting pretty good at it. He LOVES it if he happen to be the only one on it (which is rare with the weather getting nicer).

Bennett does not like the trampoline so much, but has mastered climbing this ladder and then going down one of the big slides. He also likes "driving" these little cars.

Today Angie and I took all the kids to a different park near Austin's school. It has less equipment, but lots of wide open space and few people. We had a little picnic. How many kids can you fit on one stroller? Angie pushed all 4 of them all the way to her car.

I was trying to get a good picture of the boys together, but Bennett kept making this face the whole time. Couldn't get a good one, but this one makes me laugh.

Feeling cared for

We are now one week into Chris' two week trip and doing pretty well. I have been blessed with invites from friends and neighbors for dinner at least 4 times in the last week. I have not done much cooking, which has been nice. A couple we work with is staying here at night while they attend a training that is near our home (and an hour + commute for them) so there are people around during the night. And tomorrow night (for my birthday) some girlfriends are going out to dinner and pedicure with me to celebrate. SO, we have missed Chris lots and will be happy for him to return, but I do feel taken care of and loved while he is gone.

The boys are doing pretty well, with of course times of disobedience or bad attitudes but mostly good. Bennett has been really clingy to me, which he isn't usually though. Austin has continued to have a good time at school and comes home pretty happy. What they had for snack is usually the first and seemingly most important thing he has to tell me (yesterday it was oranges and white bread with raisins in it) and he might include other content like Chinese characters or a new song. So, I am thankful. While this is a long trip, this might be the most connection with others I have ever had while Chris travels. Sorry I have not taken any pictures lately, but we have enjoyed going outside. The weather has been really pretty, but still unpredictable temperatures. Some days it actually reaches the 50's, but the wind can be strong and fierce. But the boys have wanted to go out most days so we at least make an attempt, but if the wind is strong we may come right back in.

Well, I think I will head to bed soon. Good night!

First week back at school

Austin completed his first week back at school after the L-O-N-G winter break. We started afternoons this week. Austin and Bree go together- we drop them off by one pm and they start with a nap. This was the part I was most nervous about, since Austin rarely sleeps during his rest time at home. But he did great! They said he was quiet the whole time (almost an hour and a half) though they were not sure if he ever slept (i am pretty sure he didn't). But he had no books or anything and stayed quiet. He did not want to rest there before he started, but after the first day he said he "got used to it" and it was fine.

After nap they drink water (Austin includes this detail every day when I ask him what they did at school). Then Tuesday and Fridays they have Chinese class- actually learning to recognize and write characters. I am excited about this for Austin but he also really likes it. He came home and could draw almost all the ones he learned, though he only knew some of the names. He learned 中 (zhong-meaning middle but also in the name China)， 大 (da-big)， 小 (xiao-small)， 人 (ren- person) ，and 口(kou- mouth)。He also learned one that he described as having two eyes and tears, but he could not remember how to write it and I could not figure out what he was describing. Anyway, he liked it. The other days they do some music and art (so far learning a Chinese praise song and drawing pictures), a numbers game (Austin said they counted 1-10 and wrote them on the board but I am guessing it must have been somewhat more sophisticated than that) and learned shapes and colors (all in Chinese).

I actually sent him 4 days this week because they had not decided fully which content would be which day and I wanted him to try it. He was really happy and liked everyday. I have not been planning to send him 4 days, but we will see. If he continues to really like it, maybe we would. It is actually kind of nice to have the morning with him again and Bennett enjoys having Gege around during more of his awake time.

So, even though it was not what I thought we wanted, it seems to be going pretty well. And I am hoping his Chinese will improve a lot more now that there is more concentrated teaching time in Chinese.

We are making it pretty well without Chris, though we do miss him. Bennett continues to stick his jaw out in endless energy after dinner and I cannot quite keep up with that, but we are making it.

Nightly ritual

This is quickly becoming a nightly ritual.



After dinner, the boys have "wrestle-fest" or roll around- on -each -other fest, or some sort of game. Bennett especially seems to be really wound up from dinner until, well, way after bedtime usually. He takes pretty long afternoon naps and just has this energy that needs an outlet. He gets this look where he sticks out his jaw and you know when he does that he is about to pounce on someone, pull them down or otherwise get really physical. The boy wears me out some days and I think it will be particularly challenging these next 2 weeks with Chris traveling. I can not do "wrestle-fest" justice nor do I really want to. At bedtime when we are trying to read books to the boys Bennett gets especially energetic and will not sit still for the Bible story or prayer. He just keeps falling on one of us, rolling over someone or keeps jumping on the bed. Not sure yet quite how to reel him in. But needless to say, we will miss Daddy a lot, but especially after dinner. Wonder who I could hire to come over and wrestle for an hour and wear him out these next 2 weeks?

Last night after a wrestling session, Austin decided they would all put on a concert and I would be the audience. You can see Chris' wide variety of interests are influencing our children- they easily switch from wrestling to instrument playing (neither of which I have had much of anything to do with).